Thursday, October 4, 2012

LinkedIn: A Critical Rung in Your Career Ladder


Picture yourself in five to ten years. Are you still in the same job? Doing the same thing you’re doing now? Chances are, no, that’s not what you picture. You plan on moving ahead and moving up in your current career or maybe even in a different career. Well, that’s a lot more likely to happen with a targeted LinkedIn profile filled with value statements.

Let’s examine why this is the case starting with a little bit about LinkedIn. LinkedIn came on the scene touted as “a Facebook for professionals”. It was a way to network, offer skills, find hidden job opportunities, and build industry or function knowledge. It quickly emerged as the “Gold Standard” for business networking and it doesn't look like they are relinquishing the title anytime soon.

When they first came into vogue the site was mainly geared toward high level executives; people who had amassed years and years of experience and accomplishments. However, just like Facebook was only for college students at first, things change. Now, LinkedIn is where you go to position yourself as a career professional and make useful contacts. Not to mention the groups. The LinkedIn groups are GOLD!!! Pick an industry and there’s a group for it on LinkedIn. These groups offer information, guidance, job tips, and support, as well as, actual job postings! A job board NOT peppered with mystery shopper or fraud ads. Real jobs for real people.

As more and more employers are performing their due diligence before hiring, we find that they are turning more and more to LinkedIn. A lot of large companies are even requiring current employees to have and maintain a LinkedIn profile. So, it looks really good if you already have one. Everyone knows what you’re going to find on Facebook; pictures of vacations, kids, funny pictures, etc. There’s always the possibility of them finding something you might not want them to see as well. Advice? Make everything on your personal social networking sites private to anyone that’s not already on your friends list. This drives away unwanted attention to your personal life. Remember we are all responsible for maintaining our own boundaries.

Get LinkedIn, get LinkedIn, get LinkedIn!!!! Your LinkedIn will consist of one picture that you choose. It should be a professional looking headshot. This does not mean you have to hire a photographer. It just means no MySpace angle bathroom pictures, employers don’t care what your dog, kids, or spouse/partner look like, and they don’t care that you met Michael Jordan unless you work in sports. Just a friendly headshot that makes you looks reliable, relatable, and most of all hirable.

Once you have your picture, you’ll need to write a summary. A lot of people choose to write their summary of qualifications or career profile direct from their resume. That’s okay, but this space is really the only chance the employer will have pre-interview to get an idea of your fit into their corporate culture. Therefore, I suggest writing it in narrative. Just like you’re introducing yourself. It should be friendly, professional, and should contain key skills that will compel the reader to continue, just like a cover letter.

Next you’ll need to add your experience, job by job. For this section, always, always, always copy and paste from your resume. Everything you show an employer regarding your background and skills should be consistent. If it’s important enough for the employer to know about, it should be in the resume first. Then, copy and paste your job history from your resume into any professional online profile you have. Content and consistency are king in a successful job search. There’s a special skills section under the job history, use your core competencies. FILL THIS SECTION as best you can!!! These are the keywords that cause your profile to pop up in employer searches. LinkedIn makes this relatively easy, as they give you a drop down menu of skills as you type. Make sure anything you choose is backed up by your experience and accomplishments.

Now all that’s left is to make connections with people you know in your industry or target industry. If you have friends that use LinkedIn, connect with them, the more quality personal connections you have the better. Do not, I repeat do not, LinkedIn request employers or people you don’t know but want to know. LinkedIn maintains its professionalism by taking reports of unsolicited connection requests very seriously. Request to connect with enough people you don’t actually know and LinkedIn will remove you. The best thing to do is find LinkedIn groups that are in-line with your career or target and join them. Participate in the discussions and comb them for information and opportunities. As you become more involved on LinkedIn, the people in your target industry begin to recognize and remember you as a positive contributing group member. This facilitates requests to connect that are encouraged and accepted.

I’ve heard a lot of people say that LinkedIn is not for them. They don’t work in an industry that uses it, or they don’t have an important job so they don’t need one. Let me put it this way, unless you want to stay at the same career level, in the same industry, in the same function for the rest of your working life, then you need a LinkedIn profile. This site is the first site ever to allow both, a job seeker to control their search effectively, and allow an employer to source quality candidates from one place. It’s here, it’s not going away, it’s getting bigger, and you need to be on it!

OMG! Resumes offers LinkedIn profiles on their own or as part of a professional resume package. Call or email today and launch yourself into the future of successful job searching and career placement!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Why You NEED Career and Interview Coaching in Today's Job Market

I just read an article on LinkedIn from an HR Director titled Meeting the Need for Talent. The article is pointed at hospitality, specifically hoteliers, but it resonates several strong points, and the “baker’s dozen questions” apply to every industry, every function. It got me thinking about how many opportunities are really out there. I know the common chant right now is “not enough jobs” and there is some truth to that. However, if you change your thinking and become an opportunity seeker instead of a job seeker, you will see a world of possibilities open up for you.

Here’s the deal. Because there are fewer jobs and more people to fill them, employers are now seeking superstars instead of candidates. These career rockstars start wowing the hiring managers from first contact (their resume and cover letter) right through the interview process. Never tiring, never showing wear, ALWAYS identifying or recognizing opportunities to bring or demonstrate value.  These are the people that seem to sail through changing jobs, lay offs, downsizing, etc. The ones that make you sit up straighter and wish you’d ironed your shirt when they walk into the waiting room for an interview.

The afore mentioned article is all about how employers are changing the way they look, the way they come across to potential employees, and the way they interview. This is why you need career and interview coaching to go along with knockout personal marketing documents.  The career coaching is necessary just to target you and or make you appear less specialized at the same time. So to keep up and not get left in the “pass” pile, you need to change the way they see you and the way you interview. That’s a lot for you to take on when you’re already worried about this transitional period in your life. 

I hear clients all the time tell me out of one side of their mouth that they don’t have an “exciting job”. They don’t do anything special, ever. Then out of the other side of their mouth say “Oh, interview? No, I’m good. I can nail an interview.”  My next question is, “Really, what will you talk about?” Silence. Sometime the answer is an embarrassed “Well, I wasn’t ready for that.” That,  I offer, is the problem. You should know your experience and accomplishments well enough to know what needs they match and be ready, at any time, to deliver professional, poised, value laden answers to any questions, from anybody asking about your knowledge, skills, and abilities.

Flash forward three days and our client now has a document properly showcasing their former positions and achievements (and yes, everyone has achievements in every job). They have  a document with a strong call to action for a personal meeting, and have learned not only how to answer any professional question, at any time, but also the ever important questions they should ask employers at the interview. They have become a superstar, through knowledge about who they are as a professional, which path they are traveling and how to successfully convey their match to employer’s needs for talent.

OMG! Resumes has built vital career and interview coaching into every package at no extra charge. We want you to get the job, not just the interview. OMG! Resumes turns weary job seekers into opportunity seeking superstars!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

21st Century Networking

Protean:
1. Tending or able to change frequently or easily.
2. Able to do many different things; versatile. 

The 21st century career must be protean. A career that is completely driven by the individual, not the organization. A career that will be reinvented by the person, as the person, the environment, and the market change. This is why networking is now of paramount importance. Throughout your life you will collect all kinds of people and in this protean age, any one of them could be a valuable connection.

Quintessential Careers.com reports only 5%-25% of jobs are advertised.  
About.com says at least 60% of all jobs come from networking.

Meeting and rubbing elbows with people is easy. The complicated part has always been how to give them as much information about you in as convenient a way possible. Every article I read says “DO NOT go out anywhere without a copy of your resume in your car or briefcase.” Let’s clarify this and bring it into this century. First, keeping your resume in your car – I don’t know about you but if anything stays in my car for longer than one day it is inevitably covered in dried McDonalds barbeque sauce and has at least two different size footprints on it. So your car? Maybe not the best place to store important potentially life changing documents. Keeping them in a briefcase. Do you take your briefcase to dinner? To parties? No. You don’t always have your briefcase with you. These scenarios also leave out the inconvenience to whomever your giving your resume, to now, make sure it doesn’t get wrinkled or they don’t leave it their car, and to make a copy or scan it into their pc and get it to the decision makers. This puts a lot off onto this person your are trying to impress.

Cue technology and the 21st century. Networking cards have been around for a while. There have been several different kinds of networking cards through the years. Some with just your name and contact information. This gives your contacts no information except who you are. Then we had “shrunken resumes”, compact little pieces of paper that when unfolded revealed a truncated version of your resume and when folded up properly looked like a regular networking card. These were hard to read and harder to fold. Now we have email addresses or direct links to web resumes. This is much easier but let’s take it a step further.

With the rise of smart phones we have discovered how, in one step to get your information to contacts, making it convenient for both of you. Welcome, the QR code.

You may have seen these little graphics on products, some TV shows, cds, dvds or a myriad of other things. These are little pieces of code that when read by a smart phone will take you immediately to a website for that product or movie or album or…candidate. We redesigned the networking card to include your name, branding statement, contact information and QR code. When you hand these out, you are giving your entire personal marketing package to a contact in a way that is easy for you to always have on you. Even better, its easy for your contact to keep and access. The QR code, when read by a smart phone, will redirect to your web resume and cover letter. Your web resume can also include links to your LinkedIn profile or online portfolio, highlighting all pertinent accomplishments. From your web resume, your contact can save a copy of your resume, email it, print it, or send the link directly to your targeted decision maker.

All of these are solid, modern business reasons for this to work for you. The part that is not talked about as much but is equally compelling is…it’s really cool, brand new technology. People will stand in line to say they are doing the newest technology based thing. The convenience and innovation of this product will stick in your contact’s mind, further ensuring you will not be forgotten. Your contact is going to want to show this to everyone they know, there by growing your network without you even having to be around.

OMG! Resumes will build and host your web resume and cover letter with a unique URL and create your NetSmart Card with QR code. Call us today to make sure you never miss another networking opportunity again.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Happy New Year everyone!!!


2011 will be a year of rebuilding and recovery, however it is the 1ST year of rebuilding and recovery therefore it is still a mixed bag. Only 5% of companies surveyed by AOLJobs.com plan to continue a hiring freeze in 2011. And, salaries are expected to increase an average of 2.9%. However, most companies that began "working leaner" during the recession say they do NOT plan to re-grow their staff.

So, if you are looking for a job, looking for a promotion, or raise you have to stay sharp. Now more than ever. The job market will actually be even more clogged with candidates than last year. All the folks who hung onto that job they hate, the ones who knew how bad the market was and weren't going to get out there until they saw a light at the end of the tunnel? All of these people will now throw their hat into the ring for consideration.

Education and soft skills seem to be tied for "most important to employers". Don't get discouraged - Education doesn't necessarily mean college. In many careers a specialized certification is as or more important than a degree. For example, the number 1 growing industry in the US right now is healthcare. All kinds of healthcare workers are needed and these careers usually require a certification that takes between 9 months and 2 years.

You'll also see an influx of part time jobs. Another growing trend spawned from employers wanting more educated workers AND the fact that this new brighter market is still in it's trial stages. These jobs are more likely to work around class schedules. On the flip side most continuing education institutions offers weekend or night classes as well as a myriad of classes online for almost any career path.

DEVELOP AND SHOWCASE YOUR "SOFT SKILLS". I have long been made fun of by everyone from my friends to my husband for constantly correcting people's grammar and criticizing emails with misspelled words and either fragmented or run on sentences. Well guess what, it's cool to speak properly again. At least in the workplace. Think about it - In any position you'll ever have you must be perceived by the client as the expert in that position. Receptionist to CEO you have to be "the one" in the client's eyes. That same set of traits gets you hired for that position. You cannot convey expertise through schoolyard slang, abbreviations and words that aren't really words (example: irregardless, NOT a word). This has become paramount to employers. No one's going to turn you loose on clients if they can't understand what you say.

Develop other soft skills as well. Figure out what part of your personality makes you the best at what you do, develop it and showcase it. Hard skills are hard skills and degrees are degrees and they are attainable through hard work to anyone. However, employers now know soft skills and character traits, that's where one person differs from the next. That's what makes us, as individuals, stand out. Following that logic, employers realize if it makes us stand out individually, then adding a spotlight grabber to their team will add to their bottom line.

If you or someone you know is venturing into the job market this year, give us a call. We will highlight your hard skills, pin point your most valuable soft skills, and put together a value statement that makes employers say "OMG!"

Thursday, October 28, 2010

How To Give Your Online Presence A 47% Boost

Employers click on high strength, complete profiles 47% more than incomplete profiles.

What are the two most exhausting things on earth? Dating and job hunting. When you think about it the two are very similar. Both are a hunt for the right fit.  And in today's world both seem to get started online. We tend to be so careful on dating sites to make our profiles funny, and approachable while still conveying our principles and goals. We want to stand out among a sea of other singles all claiming to want and possess all the same qualities.

How is it that we lose that self awareness in our online job searching? We rely on only 2 documents, our resume and cover letter, a total of 10 paragraphs max, to make us stand out. I think we can all agree most of us have more to us than the same 10 paragraphs everyone else has. Let's look at how to effectively keep yourself in front of your target audience and make it impossible for employers not to pick you out of a sea of sameness.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying your resume and cover letter aren't important anymore. On the contrary, they are the catalyst for your transition. No matter which forum you use, traditional or digital, these documents are the first thing employers see about you. They just shouldn't be the only thing anymore. Using our dating analogy, they are your "profile pic". It's an attention getting snapshot of your professional history.  You should begin with a personally branded resume and cover letter. Your resume can no longer be a laundry list of employers and responsibilities. It needs to convey your value proposition to hiring managers.

Now, 94% of relationships begin online. Likewise over 90% of Fortune 500 companies use some kind of online recruitment. Be it job board or recruiting site they will all have you submit your resume and cover letter and build an online profile. The personal or biography section of your profile should be written around your personal branding statement.  Every sentence should highlight an attribute or personality trait that makes you the best at what you do. A lot of candidates either copy and paste sections of their resume here if they don't just skip it all together.

Don't forget the Professional Memberships section if you belong to any professional organizations within your target.  Do not rely on including it in your resume! You want to highlight those on their own.

Last we come to the stepchild of profiles, the skills section. The number 1 reason people don't use eharmony is because of the part of their questionnaire that has you rate activities and interests. People complain it is monotonous and boring.  Conversely, eharmony has the highest number of lasting relationships and "good matches".  This, is the skills section of your profile. It's not only vitality important that its filled out but you also need to enter those skills in order of importance to your target. Again, most candidates, if not skipping this altogether, will enter broad, boring information like: Skill - Microsoft Office or typing. These are not what set you apart from your competition.  These are not your core skills nor do they have anything to do with your brand.

 When sifting through profiles on dating sites we rarely take the people with only a snapshot seriously. The same is true for employers. Candidate A offers his professionally written resume and cover letter. Candidate B offers a personally branded resume and cover letter and  matching branded profile, and fully completed Skills section. Which candidate would you call for an interview?

I know this is a lot of information to take in and all of a sudden know how to make it work for you. This is why you need a professional to guide you through the process and provide seamless writing between marketing tools. Having a successful online presence, dating or professional, begins with being thorough and making sure everything is filled out completely and is consistent all the way through. It works, I promise. My clients have been successful professionally, and, by the way, I met my husband online.   

Author - Devon Benish



Friday, October 8, 2010

OMG! Resumes

Professional resume writer, Darby Deihl (GoogleMe!), comes out of retirement to help people struggling in the current job market. Her work is featured in McGraw-Hill’s best selling series, 101 Best Resumes, 101 Best Cover Letters and 101 More Best Resumes as well as Resume Winners. Invited to contribute to The Gallery of Best Resumes. Maintained a 99% hired rate for 5 years straight.

Recognizing the immense need for superior documents in this job market, Mrs. Deihl began her new venture, OMG! Resumes. When asked, “Why OMG!?”, Mrs Deihl simply replied, “Because that’s the reaction my documents get.”

We tell your story the way employers want to read to it. Our specialized format is both, head and shoulders above your competition and preferred by employers.

Examples:

One client reported that his hiring manager, after seeing the client’s resume, said, “Get me this man!” and held the position open until he could get from Texas to Arizona to interview.

An HR director hired a client over the phone after reading the client’s resume.

Another client told us she got a promotion based solely on her resume. She said her boss told her, “Honestly, after I saw your presentation, I made up my mind you had the promotion.”

We specialize in people. All of your documents are built from scratch based on your achievements, your experience, your story. The job search is shorter, confidence is boosted, better jobs are sought and won. It all begins with your story the way employers want to read it. It tells the reader exactly what you can do for them - which is, after all, what they care about.

Packages starting at $100. Includes: Resume and Cover Letter in .doc format as well hard prints. Other services include: Interview coaching, broadcasting, follow up documents and online profiles. Open Monday through Friday 8am-5pm. After hours and Saturdays by appointment.

According to deptofnumbers.com there are 75,106 reported unemployed people in San Antonio. Indeed.com lists 41 jobs per 1,000 people. And that’s #22 on their list of “where the jobs are”. It’s trending up, especially for 2011. Red Capital Group forecasts San Antonio will add 13,500 new jobs next year. However, with 75,000 people competing for them, you need our edge.

Call or email us today and let’s talk about what we can do for you, what you can do for employers and what a new job can do for your quality of life!

OMG! Resumes
210-599-1913
OMGresumes@job4u.com